This summer we've had the football World Cup. We've had a significant strike by people working in public services. We've had further awful atrocities in Gaza. And much more....
Time to ask....whose side are you on?........or is it right to take sides at all?
Palestine or Israel?......Left or Right?........Messi or Saurez?.......Sunni or Shia?......Welsh or English?...Private or Public?
Will we always be little more than tribal beings? So much in human behaviour and identity seems to boil down to tribal behaviour.
The search for a sense of belonging.
And of course 'we're all in it together'..........does that mean there's really just the one tribe? And yet, in Wales, Welsh speaking schools seem to out perform their English speaking counterparts. Why is that I wonder? Public schools obviously out perform their state school counterparts and provide us with our ruling elite. Is it division and tribalism again based on nationalism and money? I am opposed to private schools but are Welsh speaking schools attracting a better class of pupil, a better class of teacher? Or should the whole of Wales be Welsh speaking?
When RCT closed libraries I joined the 'fight for libraries' tribe. The 'Libraries for all' tribe,
During the World Cup I was fascinated by the success of countries and their place in the world order based on population and GDP........great to see Uruguay do so well with such a small population (3 million compared to Brazil's 200 million)....even though they also provided the pantomime villain in Luis Saurez.....a street boy made good (or not)....but if you've read the earlier blogs you will know Uruguay also boasts a president who gives away 95% of his own income and drives a battered old VW Beetle, dresses in old clothes and grows vegetables.
Honesty and integrity surely trumps all forms of nationalism, tribalism and money?
Come on Uruguay!
Of course really we're all in this one tribe aren't we and all the borders and barriers are contrived nonsense..............imagine......
And yet I read this weekend that in London they have built new high rise super flats that also had to include some public housing element.......and they built them with two entrances....the side entrance with plastic panels for the poor to come and go.........and the plush front entrance with armchairs, plants and fountains for the super rich to come and go
Whoever said that apartheid regimes were dead and buried?
'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many - they are few."
Percy Shelley after the Peterloo Massacre
So whose side are you on?....I'm trying to be neutral and open minded....but it's not easy is it?
Time to ask....whose side are you on?........or is it right to take sides at all?
Palestine or Israel?......Left or Right?........Messi or Saurez?.......Sunni or Shia?......Welsh or English?...Private or Public?
Will we always be little more than tribal beings? So much in human behaviour and identity seems to boil down to tribal behaviour.
The search for a sense of belonging.
And of course 'we're all in it together'..........does that mean there's really just the one tribe? And yet, in Wales, Welsh speaking schools seem to out perform their English speaking counterparts. Why is that I wonder? Public schools obviously out perform their state school counterparts and provide us with our ruling elite. Is it division and tribalism again based on nationalism and money? I am opposed to private schools but are Welsh speaking schools attracting a better class of pupil, a better class of teacher? Or should the whole of Wales be Welsh speaking?
When RCT closed libraries I joined the 'fight for libraries' tribe. The 'Libraries for all' tribe,
During the World Cup I was fascinated by the success of countries and their place in the world order based on population and GDP........great to see Uruguay do so well with such a small population (3 million compared to Brazil's 200 million)....even though they also provided the pantomime villain in Luis Saurez.....a street boy made good (or not)....but if you've read the earlier blogs you will know Uruguay also boasts a president who gives away 95% of his own income and drives a battered old VW Beetle, dresses in old clothes and grows vegetables.
Honesty and integrity surely trumps all forms of nationalism, tribalism and money?
Come on Uruguay!
Of course really we're all in this one tribe aren't we and all the borders and barriers are contrived nonsense..............imagine......
And yet I read this weekend that in London they have built new high rise super flats that also had to include some public housing element.......and they built them with two entrances....the side entrance with plastic panels for the poor to come and go.........and the plush front entrance with armchairs, plants and fountains for the super rich to come and go
Whoever said that apartheid regimes were dead and buried?
'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many - they are few."
Percy Shelley after the Peterloo Massacre
So whose side are you on?....I'm trying to be neutral and open minded....but it's not easy is it?
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